LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

fit, mimum introduxisti; and Valerius Maximus implies that they did not carry their humour to extravagant lengths, [5] but tempered it with Italian severity. From the few fragments that remain to us we should be inclined to form a different opinion, and to suspect that national partiality in contrasting them with the Graecized form of the Mimi kept itself blind to their more glaring faults. The characters that oftenest reappear in them are Maccus, Bucco, and Pappus; the first of these is prefixed to the special title, e.g. Maccus miles, Maccus virgo. He seems to have been a personage with an immense head, who, corresponding to our clown or harlequin, came in for many hard knocks, but was a general favourite. Pappus took the place of pantaloon, and was the general butt.

      NOVIUS (circ. 100 B.C.), whom Macrobius [6] calls probatissimus Atellanarum scriptor, was the first to reduce this species to the rules of art, giving it a plot and a written dialogue. Several fragments remain, but for many centuries they were taken for those of Naevius, whence great confusion ensued. A better known writer is L. POMPONIUS (90 B.C.) of Bononia, who flourished in the time of Sulla, and is said to have persuaded that cultured sensualist to compose Atellanae himself. Upwards of thirty of his plays are cited; [7] but although a good many lines are preserved, no fragments are long enough to give a good notion of his style. The commendations, however, with which Cicero, Seneca, Gellius, and Priscian load him, prove that he was classed with good writers. From the list given below, it will be seen that the subjects were mostly, though not always, from low life; some remind us of the regular comedies, as the Syri and Dotata. The old-fashioned ornaments of puns and alliteration abound in him, as well as extreme coarseness. The fables, which were generally represented after the regular play as an interlude or farce, are mentioned by Juvenal in two of his satires: [8]

      "Urbicus exodio risum movet Atellanae Gestibus Autonoes;"

      and in his pretty description of a rustic fete—

      "Ipsa dierum

       Festorum herboso colitur si quando theatro

       Maiestas, tandemque redit ad pulpita notum

       Exodium, cum personae pallentis hiatum

       In gremio matris formidat rusticus infans;

       Aequales habitus illic, similemque videbis

       Orchestram et populum. … "

      They endured a while under the empire, when we hear of a composer named MUMMIUS, of some note, but in the general decline they became merged in the pantomime, into which all kinds of dramatic art gradually converged.

      If the Atellanae were the most indigenous form of literature in which the young nobles indulged, the different kinds of love-poem were certainly the least in accordance with the Roman traditions of art. Nevertheless, unattainable as was the spontaneous grace of the Greek erotic muse, there were some who aspired to cultivate her.

      Few kinds of verse more attracted the Roman amateurs than the Epigram. There was something congenial to the Roman spirit in the pithy distich or tetrastich which formed so considerable an element in the "elegant extracts" of Alexandria. The term epigram has altered its meaning with the lapse of ages. In Greek it signified merely an inscription commemorative of some work of art, person, or event; its virtue was to be short, and to be appropriate. The most perfect writer of epigrams in the Greek sense was Simonides—nothing can exceed the exquisite simplicity that lends an undying charm to his effusions. The epigrams on Leonides and on Marathon are well known. The metre selected was the elegiac, on account of its natural pause at the close of the second line. The nearest approach to such simple epigrams are the epitaphs of Naevius, Ennius, and especially Pacuvius, already quoted. This natural grace, however, was, even in Greek poetry, superseded by a more artificial style. The sparkling epigram of Plato addressed to a fair boy has been often imitated, and most writers after him are not satisfied without playing on some fine thought, or turning some graceful point; so that the epigram by little and little approached the form which in its purest age the Italian sonnet possessed. In this guise it was cultivated with taste and brilliancy at Alexandria, Callimachus especially being a finished master of it. The first Roman epigrammatists imitate the Alexandrine models, and, making allowance for the uncouth hardness of their rhythm, achieve a fair success. Of the epigrams of Ennius, only the three already quoted remain. [9] Three authors are mentioned by Aulus Gellius [10] as having raised the Latin Epigram to a level with Anacreon in sweetness, point, and neatness. This is certainly far too high praise. Nor, even if it were so, can we forget that the poems he quotes (presumably the best he could find) are obvious imitations, if not translations, from the Greek. The first is by Q. LUTATIUS CATULUS, and dates about 100 B.C. It is entitled Ad Theotimum:

      "Aufugit mi animus; credo, ut solet, ad Theotimum

       Devenit: sic est: perfugium illud habet.

       Quid si non interdixem ne illuc fugitivum

       Mitteret ad se intro, sed magis eiiceret?

       Ibimus quaesitum: verum ne ipsi teneamur

       Formido: quid ago? Da, Venus, consilium."

      A more pleasing example of his style, and this time perhaps original, is given by Cicero. [11] It is on the actor Roscius, who, when a boy, was renowned for his beauty, and is favourably compared with the rising orb of day:

      "Constiteram exorientem Auroram forte salutans,

       Cum subito e laeva Roscius exoritur.

       Pace mihi liceat, caelestes, dicere vestra:

       Mortalis visust pulcrior esse deo."

      This piece, as may be supposed, has met with imitators both in French and Italian literature. A very similar jeu d'esprit of PORCIUS LICINUS is quoted:

      "Custodes ovium, teneraeque propaginis agnûm,

       Quaeritis ignem? ite huc: Quaeritis? ignis homo est.

       Si digito attigero, incendam silvam simul omnem,

       Omne pecus: flamma est omnia quae video."

      This Porcius wrote also on the history of literature. Some rather ill- natured lines on Terence are preserved in Suetonius. [12] He there implies that the young poet, with all his talent, could not keep out of poverty, a taunt which we have good reason for disbelieving as well as disapproving. Two lines on the rise of poetry at Rome deserve quotation—

      "Poenico bello secundo Musa pinnato gradu

       Intulit se bellicosam Romuli in gentem feram."

      A certain POMPILIUS is mentioned by Varro as having epigrammatic tastes; one distich that is preserved gives us no high notion of his powers—

      "Pacvi [13] discipulus dicor: porro is fuit Enni:

       Ennius Musarum: Pompilius clueor."

      Lastly, VALERIUS AEDITUUS, who is only known by the short notices in Varro and Gellius, wrote similar short pieces, two of which are preserved.

      AD PAMPHILAM.

      "Dicere cum conor curam tibi, Pamphila, cordis,

       Quid mi abs te quaeram? verba labris abeunt

       Per pectus miserum manat subito mihi sudor.

       Si tacitus, subidus: duplo ideo pereo."

      AD PUERUM PHILEROTA.

      "Quid faculam praefers, Phileros, qua nil opus nobis?

       Ibimus, hoc lucet pectore flamma satis.

       Illam non potis est vis saeva exstinguere venti,

       Aut imber caelo candidus praecipitans.

       At contra, hunc ignem Veneris, si non Venus ipsa,

       Nulla est quae possit vis alia opprimare."

      We have quoted these pieces, not from their intrinsic merit, for they have little or none, but to show the painful process by which Latin versification was elaborated. All these must be referred to a date at least sixty years after Ennius, and yet the rhythm is scarcely at all improved. The great number of second-rate poets who wrought in the

Скачать книгу